In a recent conversation with a parent, my jaw stuck the floor when the mother claimed, without a hint of irony, that “our children are more special than others.” At the heart of this comment, I think, lay some hurt. In trying to move home, they found that many schools, that on paper looked perfect, […]

The closing date for state secondary school applications is Wednesday 31st October, 2012. For state primaries, you have a little more time, deadline day being 15th January 2013. Up to 10% of families miss this deadline each year, but there seems to be a failure to grasp what missing the deadline will mean. After the […]

Historian and “social commentator” Niall Ferguson placed education, and the balance between state and non-state control, at the centre of his most recent lecture on Civil and Uncivil Society. Listen to the programme or read the transcript here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jmxsk The flip-side to Ferguson’s bold view is expressed in The Guardian – http://www.economist.com/node/21558255. And here is […]

The chief executive of the Girl’s Day School Trust (GDST) has argued that girls need to learn to choose a partner carefully. She said that female pupils must learn to find a man that not only helps around the home but would also be a “cheerleader” for their career. The former managing director of Penguin […]

Pupils will be given the chance to transfer to a generation of new technical colleges at the age of 14 to train in subjects such as engineering, manufacturing, construction, business and computer science. The schools – sponsored by companies such as British Airways, Ford, Warner Brothers, Balfour Beatty and Jaguar Land Rover – will aim […]

School pupils in England should start school later claims new research from Roehampton University’s Research Centre for Therapeutic Education. It highlighted eight decades of research in the US that suggested that a child’s intellectual development benefited from being slowed down in the early years. This avoided early “adultification” that often hit the future life prospects […]